New technologies and innovative business models have transformed the bikeshare landscape.

Dockless bikeshare increased the visibility and ubiquitousness of urban cycling in dozens of cities worldwide. Private dockless bicycle companies claim to provide bikeshare profitably (that is, without subsidy), creating the potential for bikeshare to become a rapidly scalable transportation option in cities.

However, complex questions have begun to arise: Can a city successfully improve urban transportation with dockless bikeshare? Can they avoid thenegative outcomes of dockless bikeshare seen in many places? Can they do both by enabling profitable, competitive businesses? The answer appears to be yes, as long as cities proactively adopt policies to integrate dockless bikeshare into the city’s broader transportation system. Recognizing that cities are interested in capitalizing on those gains (and limiting negative outcomes), this policy brief provides an outcome-oriented framework for regulating dockless bikeshare —one that might also be relevant to other emerging transportation modes. This brief is not intended to be overly prescriptive, nor does it cover every possible action a city could take; instead it provides important guidance for successful dockless bikeshare.

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This third version of the TOD Standard is structured by the same eight principles as the previous two versions, published in 2013 and 2014. Many metrics have received minor updates to clarify instructions, improve the experience of the assessors, and correct occasional gaps in proxy metric performance.

The most substantial revisions were made to the MIX Principle, which has been significantly reinforced from 15 to 25 points, and particularly to its second objective, which focuses on the mix in demographics and income ranges (Objective 5.B). The affordable housing metric under this implementation objective has doubled its maximum points, to a total of eight, and two new metrics were added to examine and score the protection of pre-existing households and small businesses and services on a redevelopment project site. The upgrading of slums and informal settlements is now explicitly mentioned as a legitimate TOD project.

Walkability is a crucial first step in creating sustainable transportation in an urban environment.

Effectively understanding and measuring the complex ecology of walkability has proven challenging for many organizations and governments, given the various levels of policy-making and implementation involved. In the past, Western and Eurocentric standards have permeated measurement attempts and have included data collection practices that are too complicated to have utility in many parts of the world or at a level beyond that of the neighborhood. In order to expand the measurement of walkability to more places and to promote a better understanding of walkability, ITDP has developed Pedestrians First. This tool will facilitate the understanding and the measurement of the features that promote walkability in urban environments around the world at multiple levels. With a better global understanding of walkability, and more consistent and frequent measurement of the walkability of urban environments, decision-makers will be empowered to enact policies that create more walkable urban areas.

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The Rapid Transit to Resident Ratio (RTR) is a small statistic with a lot of information. The metric compares a country’s urban population (cities with more than 500,000 people) with the length of rapid transit lines (including rail, metro, and BRT) that serve them. This metric offers a snapshot of the access, equity, and quality of life that come with increased transport options and that allow countries to track progress over time.

Many factors influence RTR. A dense city may require less transit length to provide the same level of access as a more sprawling city with the same population. Because of this, RTR is perhaps most useful for comparing transit growth over time. As populations grow, transit investment must at least keep pace with that growth and must increase faster than population growth in order to improve the ability of people to move around cities.

This map presents a baseline for countries to gauge their transit growth in the coming years. Across a diverse range of financing and development levels, countries can all make smart investments in their infrastructure, and in turn, an investment in their people.

Cycling plays a major role in personal mobility around the world, but it could play a much bigger role. A report, A Global High Shift Cycling Scenario, presents the potential for dramatically increasing bicycle and e-bike use in cities around the world. Read the report for detailed exploration of the CO2 and cost benefits of a shift toward cycling.

There are many other potential uses for spaces reserved for parking. This illustration puts the opportunity costs in perspective, showing how the private and public realm could be reshaped for higher value purposes.

Over the past three decades, ITDP has worked in over 100 cities in more than 35 countries. Through our work, we’ve designed, built and implemented sustainable transport systems that save time, money and improve quality of life for millions.

BRT systems are growing rapidly, bringing comfortable, fast, high quality transport to millions of people in some of the world’s fastest growing nations, at a fraction of the cost of metro and light rail. 1,849 of the 2,580 km of true BRT corridors have been built in the last ten years, with sweeping growth in many countries around the world. Read more about the growth in BRT.

The new report, A Global High Shift Scenario, produced by from ITDP and the University of California, Davis, is the first study to examine how major changes in transport investments worldwide would affect urban passenger transport emissions, as well as the mobility of different income groups. This infographic demonstrates, by region, the emissions savings possible from a high shift toward low-carbon transport.

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